Friday, March 19, 2004

Not the most effective Bush campaign event:

Iraqi journalists gave Secretary of State Colin Powell a hostile reception in Baghdad on Friday, walking out of his news conference in protest at the killing of two of their colleagues by U.S. troops.

(Hmmm -- were these killings even reported in your local paper?)

...About 30 Arab journalists quit the hall in anger at Thursday's shooting of two Iraqis who worked for the Dubai-based satellite television channel Al Arabiya.

...Al Arabiya employees say U.S. soldiers fired on a car carrying an Arabiya crew on Thursday evening after another car ran through a checkpoint. Cameraman Ali Abdelaziz was killed and correspondent Ali al-Khatib died in hospital on Friday morning....


Meanwhil, Powell continues his remarkable transformation from relatively honest guy to party-line-spewing Bushite flack:

He told U.S. soldiers and civilians that Iraq and its neighbors need no longer fear Saddam's chemical weapons -- even though U.S. experts have not found any in a year-long hunt....

Powell's boss is, however, proving to be a uniter, not a divider:

Across town, about 7,000 Sunnis and Shi'ites marched against the occupation after Friday prayers in two main mosques. "No to America, no to Saddam," they chanted in a show of unity.

Another ally says "What's the point?":

South Korea said on Friday it had refused a U.S. request for help in offensive operations and would not deploy troops in the northern city of Kirkuk because of deteriorating security there....

Odd, given that we're doing such a good job of making the country secure:

Powell spent his entire seven-hour visit within the confines of the Green Zone, the heavily defended compound where the U.S.-led administration has its Baghdad headquarters.

He flew in from Kuwait on a U.S. military C-130 aircraft. From the airport, Powell and his party were ferried to the Green Zone in low-flying helicopters, with machinegunners posted at the doors scanning the ground for potential threats....

A U.S. military convoy came under rocket-propelled grenade fire in the northern city of Mosul on Friday and witnesses said one American soldier had been hit....


--Reuters

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